Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 13 – No. 4611 November 12, 2011
Thought for the week: "There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." – Denis Waitley
"Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have." – Norman Vincent Peale
"Denying or refusing to deal with some unpleasant fact in your life is the source of most stress and unhappiness." – Brian Tracy
"Only those who knock deserve to find an open door." – Unknown
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." – Dale Carnegie
"Don't blame others for your failure to be fully accountable for your own life. If others are to blame then you have given them control." – Bob Perks
"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." – Michael Althsuler
"Some people have all the commitment of a kamikaze pilot on his tenth mission." – Lou Holtz
"It's always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuitor will toss up to me like gifts from the sea." – Jonas Salk, MD (inventor of the vaccine for polio)
"How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?" – Unknown
One day in artillery instruction, a colonel came to inspect our class. First up was Private O'Malley. The colonel got in his face and asked him what reading he had on his 105 mm. howitzer.
"Two-nine-oh-seven, sir," was the reply.
"Soldier," said the colonel, "don't you know you never say 'oh' in the artillery? You say 'zero.'"
What's your name, soldier?" "Zero Malley, sir," answered the private.
– Contributed to "Humor In Uniform" Received
from: America In Uniform.
Several years ago the New York Times reported the following about teenage drinking: "Magazines popular with teenagers like People, Rolling Stone, and Sports Illustrated tend to have more advertisements for liquor and beer than other magazines, and that suggests that the alcohol industry may be indirectly appealing to under-age drinkers." A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that "for every million more readers ages 12 to 19, a magazine had 60 percent more advertisements for beer and distilled liquor."
I don't think it's a question of "indirectly" appealing to underage drinkers at all. I think the alcohol industry knows exactly what it's doing—just like the cigarette industry did with its now infamous "Joe Camel" image.
"In one of my parishes," wrote a pastor, "there resided a school superintendent and his family. They lived through a time of great tension between the School Board and the teachers' union. They even received threats that their home would be burned. Their son David had the highest SAT scores in the school, a triple A rating on the tuba, was extremely active in school functions, had an almost 97% average, yet was blackballed from the National Honor Society because of the feud between the administration and the teachers. His parents were heartbroken, but after some brief moments of anger and resentment, David announced: 'I don't need them to tell me who I am.'
The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus is killing a person. "In the past, some people have mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be in the process of formation for some time, and then 'God breathes a soul into it.' They had it backwards. The life that is present forms matter into a body for itself' (Joseph Breig, "Life Forms Matter," The Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. 8).
"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk ... and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit" (Job 10:8-12 NIV).
"Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name ... and now the LORD says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant" (Isaiah 49:1, 5).
"The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations'" (Jeremiah 1:4-5).
In the following passages we note that personality is ascribed to the unborn.
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that fully well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:13-16).
"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him" (Psalm 127:3).
Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a circumstance relating to the death of the unborn: "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."
All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt that comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the fetus? The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the fetus within Elizabeth: "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.... As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy" (Luke 1:41, 44).
Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having personality. In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a person while still in his mother's womb, but more a person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent): "But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles" (Galatians 1:15-16, NASB).
"For all the talk of freedom and self-determination, the abortion movement is at its heart a movement denying rights to a silent segment of humanity and soliciting public sanction, support and subsidy to its own cause" (Donald P. Shoemaker, Abortion, The Bible and the Christian, Hayes Publishing Co., 1976, p. iv).
The serious damage done to our economy, social institutions and personal relationships by widespread cheating and dishonesty is bad enough. But widespread acceptance of such behavior as inevitable threatens to make our future a lot worse. In effect, our culture is being infected by a disease: the disease of low expectations.
The disease is manifested by the corrosive assumption that human nature can't be expected to withstand pressure or temptation. In other words, when there's a conflict between self-interest and moral principles, self-interest—in fact, short-term self-interest—will generally prevail.
Thus, whenever a politician lies to get elected, or a student cheats to get into college, or an executive commits fraud to save a job or earn a bonus, we blame the system rather than the individuals. Thus, under the influence of the disease of low expectations, an increasing army of apologists argue that both the carrot and the stick—previously thought of as valid motivating techniques—should be condemned and eliminated as corrupting influences that create irresistible pressures to cheat.
A school superintendent in Iowa once told me, "Cheating isn't the problem; it's the way we test." We really can't expect students not to cheat, he implied, especially when the stakes are so high.
I wonder whether he would be as comfortable with a similar explanation of the recent corporate scandals: "Fraudulent accounting isn't the problem; it's the way we compensate executives."
Don't buy into this dreadfully pessimistic and perverted perspective about human nature. Cheating is wrong and harmful, and integrity is real and possible. It just takes character.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
"A friend loves at all times" (Proverbs 17:17, NIV).
Babe Ruth was one of the all-time greats of American baseball. For years he had been the idol of sports fans. Time, however, took its toll. I read how, in one of his last games, he began to falter. He struck out and made several misplays that allowed the opposing team to score five runs in one inning. As he walked from the field, he was greeted with an enormous storm of boos and catcalls from the stands. Fans shook their fists.
Then a little boy jumped over the railing and, with tears running down his cheeks ran out to the great athlete. Unashamedly, he flung his arms around his hero's legs and held on tightly. Babe Ruth picked him up, hugged him, set him down, and together the two of them walked off the field hand in hand.
An unknown poet wrote:
I went out to find a friend,
But could not find one there.
I went out to be a friend,
And friends were everywhere!
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to be a faithful friend at all times. And thank you that your friendship for me is never based on my performance—good or bad—and that you love me at all times no matter what. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."
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15. Helpful Books, CDs, DVDs and Cassette Messages
Oprah Winfrey: "Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi." – Oprah Winfrey
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Books by Dick Innes, Editor of Weekend Encounter You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing How to Mend a Broken Heart I Hate Witnessing—A Handbook for Effective Christian
Communications
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CDs, DVDs, Cassettes:
Healing, Wholeness & Happiness by Dick Innes
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1. Bible concordance and Bible helps
2. New Hope Crisis Counseling with trained
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